ISLAMABAD: A former tennis star, Aliya Rashid, has requested the Supreme Court to review and recall its March 23, 2017, verdict as a result of which she lost her job while serving in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB).

NAB chairman Qamar Zaman Chaudhry had assured the Supreme Court during a hearing that the bureau would work out some via media to hire services of Aliya Rashid as a consultant on a contract basis since she was a valuable officer in the organisation.

A three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by then Justice Amir Hani Muslim had ordered NAB to provide opportunity to senior officers whose initial appointment in the bureau suffered from inherent disqualification to opt for premature retirement instead of contesting their cases. Ms Rashid chose not to go for the premature retirement rather contested her case in the courts.

The court decided the suo motu case against illegal appointments and out-of-turn promotions in NAB. The matter was initiated by former chief justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on an anonymous letter in which the attention of the court was drawn towards appointment of former military officers on deputation in senior grades from BPS-20 to BPS-21.

Ms Rashid was appointed and then elevated to the position of Director General, Awareness and Prevention, in Grade 20 on the recommendation of the then prime minister in recognition of her meritorious services and representing Pakistan at international events in the field of sports as a star tennis player and was retained in the bureau in compliance with the 2011 apex court order and its Sept 16, 2009, order in which it asked NAB not to discriminate against Ms Rashid by giving exemption from attending NIPA course.

Senior counsel Hafiz S.A. Rehman moved the review petition on behalf of Ms Rashid in which she said that she was never assigned the duties of investigator in NAB but she had been assigned the task of awareness or anti-corruption strategy among the masses right from the beginning which she was undertaking under the slogan: ”Say no to Corruption” in the entire country from school to school, organisation to organisation, office to office, civil society to media, etc.

The petition pleaded that she had prepared a whistle blower protection act in collaboration with the law ministry which has been approved by the cabinet and was at present lying with the law ministry.

Published in Dawn, April 23rd, 2017